DriveSmartBC

Fire apparatus have a special privilege granted to no other emergency vehicle in British Columbia. You must not follow them within 150 meters or 500 feet unless you are also driving an emergency vehicle. Having never been a firefighter I was curious and thought that I would ask the experts and find out why this rule exists.

This video is a news interview with Dr. John Vavrik who is a psychologist that works for ICBC. The interview was prompted by a hit and run collision that put two joggers in Surrey, B.C. in hospital. Dr. Vavrik explains why people fail to remain at a collision like this to help their victims.

The British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) is holding their third annual Worst Roads competition for BC between April 29 and May 27, 2013. This is your chance to nominate your "favorite" stretch of roadway that is in the greatest need of repair or redesign. The results will be published and shared with government in an attempt to encourage road improvements.

A reader from Vancouver asked me where the rules came from for bicycle lanes and signs as they could not be found in the provincial driving manual, Learn to Drive Smart. Included in the e-mail was a link to the City of Vancouver's web site which showed a collection of signs and markings that are now in use on the city streets there. I didn't think that this was going to be a tough question!

Today marks the start of the second UN Global Road Safety Week that runs until May 12, 2013. This year's theme is pedestrian safety and you are invited to join the international community to ensure a fatality free week and a significant and long-lasting contribution towards making walking safe for all.

Quoted from the document's introduction: "ETEP, which delivers almost $30 million over and above regular BC road safety enforcement resources for initiatives such as dedicated traffic enforcement, automated intersection enforcement, vehicle crime suppression, police overtime and special enforcement campaigns such as impaired driving CounterAttack. The program also funds communications for targeted traffic enforcement campaigns, police training, and secretariat support for police traffic committees."

I spent most of my policing career as a traffic cop. Yes, I have an outlook that many in the public don't share, but they haven't spent 25 years investigating collisions and seeing the aftermath either. Thank goodness for that, but maybe our politicians need a bit of experience similar to my own to temper their viewpoints.

Reconstruction is part of Australia's Wipe Off 5 anti-speeding campaign. It demonstrates how slowing down by 5 km/h can drastically reduce the consequences of a collision. In contrast, one might think about many driver's tendencies to say that 10 over isn't a problem because the police don't write speeding tickets for that little over the limit. The ticket might be the least of your problems if your speed is the cause of a collision.

Here is another example of obstructed lamps. The owner of this vehicle has coated the inside of the rear lenses on this vehicle with a translucent black spray coating that makes the lens appear dark or black. It also limits the light output, making them less or ineffective depending on the lighting conditions and the amount of coating used. The spray cannot be removed so once the driver has been dealt with by police, it will mean replacement of the lenses in addition to a ticket or vehicle inspection order.